For education industry, Garner has identified some strategic technologies in 2015 along with providing recommendations to education CIOs and IT leaders on how they can adapt and benefit from them.
To talk of major strategic technologies for education sector in 2015, we can list them under following headings:
- Personalized adaptive learning boosted by crowd sourcing & Big Data
The roots of adaptive learning can be traced back to 950s; however, the online learning platform has proved to be breakthrough in capturing learner data. With crowd sourcing and big data collection, the metadata – combined with empirical data of aspiring students looking to mast a topic- defines the real value of adaptive learning. It’s an incredible assistance to help shape the future of adaptive learning.
- Adaptive E- Text Books – From analog to digital education
E-text books have changed the way the information is stored, managed, updated and utilized for educational purposes. It frees schools, students, and teachers from carrying printed material and unlike it, e-textbooks can be updated, assembled or disassembled to add or remove more sources of information.
- Customer relationship management tool enhancement
Institutes will look to standardize and integrate data on various prospective and current students, parents, alumni, corporations, and beneficiaries etc. to provide better solutions. It’ll also bring swiftness to informed decision making on their campus.
- Accurate solutions using Big Data
Institutes will utilize vast amount of big data to analyze and recommend actions based on the assessment made from all data from every activity in the campus to control the outcomes. The higher educational institutes and research institutes will benefit from Big Data.
- Collection of technologies will represent source strategies
A collection of technologies, vendor services from hosting to cloud, homegrown to open source, to subscription models for acquiring software/hardware capabilities will represent source strategies for institutes. It’s help IT to pay more attention to administrative transactions and operation support, hence, extending further support differentiation and innovation for educational institutes.
- From infrastructure to exostructure approach
Without bringing leverage services inside the campus, institutes are likely to find support from the cloud that’ll fasten the adaption process of the institution. So, instead of infrastructure, the future is predicted to incline towards combination of various partnerships, tools, services and technologies, which is known as exostructure.
- From proprietary credentials to microcredentials
The microcredentials will be available outside institute campus walls for all to see. This method will lead to low-cost, high-value, technology-based capability, and it’ll add extra value and encouragement factors for students. Open microcreditionals appears to be a clear strategic technology that’ll cut a lot of investment.
- Digital assessment to cut physical labor
The physically tethered and human-proctored tests for assessment of students will be replaced by digital assessment. Also, it’ll assist in improving modes of testing, grading and data analysis. Identification method will be applied to increase trust in online education. That’ll deliver accurate results and cut a lot of human labor.